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Psalm 31:9

Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.

7I will be glad and rejoice in your loving kindness, for you have seen my affliction. You have known my soul in adversities.
8You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a large place.
9Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.
10For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.
11Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, a horror to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.
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Notice

Grief reaches the body in this prayer, and the request for mercy comes while the sufferer is still worn down.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What do the words “waste away with grief” help you name about sorrow's toll?

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What would asking YHWH for mercy sound like in your own words today?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

10 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 6:7My eye wastes away because of grief. It grows old because of all my adversaries.Both describe an eye wasting away because of grief, naming sorrow's toll on the body.
Psalm 88:9My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, LORD. I have spread out my hands to you.Both bring grief-worn eyes before the LORD in prayer; Psalm 88 also describes hands spread out to him.
Psalm 73:26My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.Both speak of bodily failure in relation to God, though Psalm 73 also declares God to be enduring strength.
Psalm 56:1For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Silent Dove in Distant Lands.” A poem by David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath. Be merciful to me, God, for …Both ask God for mercy in distress; Psalm 56 names an attacker as the source of that distress.
Job 16:16My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids,Both describe suffering through its effects on the eyes; Job also names a face reddened by weeping.
Lamentations 2:11My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My bile is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young …Both describe sorrow affecting the eyes and the body; Lamentations names the city's destruction and its suffering children.
Lamentations 5:17For this our heart is faint. For these things our eyes are dim:Both describe distress that reaches inward and affects the eyes, joining inner weakness with bodily suffering.
Lamentations 4:17Our eyes still fail, looking in vain for our help. In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.Both describe failing eyes, though Psalm 31 names grief and Lamentations 4 describes looking in vain for help.
Job 17:7My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.Both connect sorrow with weakened sight and describe its toll extending through the body.
Job 33:19–22“He is chastened also with pain on his bed, with continual strife in his bones,Both describe bodily suffering; Job speaks of chastening, while Psalm 31:9 names grief and asks the LORD for mercy.
Where this verse fits

Grief. chronic pain.

What the Bible says about grief →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Pray this plea for mercy in your own words

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Encouragement

The psalm asks for mercy without reporting relief. Your distress need not be edited out of prayer; the suffering described here is spoken straight to YHWH.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 31:9. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 31 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).